Less than half the people in Gauteng agreed with the statement that “it is the duty of all citizens to vote”, in the Electoral Commission of South Africa and Human Sciences Research Council’s Voter Participation Survey 2025/26. In fact, only 28% of people in Gauteng believed that democracy is preferable to any other kind of government. Gauteng had the lowest support for democracy of all South Africa’s provinces.

With local government elections penciled in for the end of 2026, the HSRC notes that these elections are “being planned in the most challenging pre-electoral climate observed over the last 30 years, marked by high levels of pessimism, frustration and disengagement and geographic disparities,” and if there is no intervention, voter turnout will be low.

In the 2021 local government elections, the City of Johannesburg voter turnout was the second-lowest of all the metros at 42.6%. Only eThekwini recorded a lower turnout at 41.9%, against a national average of 45.86%.

Produced in partnership with Our City News.